When Allison Conliffe stepped foot on Sacred Heart Academy’s campus as a freshman in 2021, campus ministry offerings were scarce, a byproduct of COVID-19.
“When I got here, I would just be in the chapel alone,” said Conliffe, who is in her senior year. “But now, there’s people in the chapel, there’s people in Bible studies.”
Campus Ministry has “grown into its own new, vibrant community” that “has expanded and flourished,” said Conliffe, who leads two of the four student clubs hosted by Sacred Heart’s Campus Ministry.
She credits this “revival of faith and fellowship” to a collaboration between the school’s administration, the Campus Ministry team and the students, she said.
‘It’s a perfect balance of students seeing the need of our faith and having a very open admin whose main mission is to serve the students. We know that the administration is for us, and so we bring ideas to them. They are happy to do whatever the students envision.’
— Allison Conliffe, Sacred Heart Academy student
The Campus Ministry team hosts school Masses and prayer services for students throughout the school year, said Meghan Swiergosz, the campus minister, in a recent interview.
The ministry also offers other opportunities, such as workshops on “How to Lector” or “How to Lead a Retreat.” Activities touch on church traditions and devotions, such as May Crownings.
This academic year, Sacred Heart students have driven Campus Ministry to expand its offerings with weekly events, including multiple Bible studies that draw dozens of students and an offering called “Morning Glory” — an opportunity for prayer and a light breakfast on Fridays before school.
The school has also begun hosting “High School Worship Nights” — open to all high schoolers in the area — which include fellowship, Scripture study, eucharistic adoration and service.
The worship nights are led by the “Hearts for the Holy Spirit Club,” a group for student-faith leaders at Sacred Heart. The first worship event was held last fall, and the latest drew more than 50 teenagers from six high schools on Jan. 30.
These activities speak “to the volume of girls wanting this,” said Swiergosz. “Truly, it is the students driving it. Our team is just giving them the wings to make it fly.”
Campus Ministry is also using the internet to engage the students, Conliffe said.
“We are trying to use social media as a vehicle for bringing teens closer to Christ in a language that speaks to them,” said Conliffe.
“A large portion of our student body is on social media. And, on social media, that’s where people are getting other messages that go against the Church and lead people farther away from Christ. So we wanted to use social media as a tool to bring people closer to Christ,” she said.
Last month, the Campus Ministry team also launched a website to share Campus Ministry events with students during the school day. Students cannot access social media during the school day due to the school’s phone policy.
The current student-administration relationship at Sacred Heart is at the heart of the new initiatives in Campus Ministry, said Conliffe.
“It’s a perfect balance of students seeing the need of our faith and having a very open admin whose main mission is to serve the students,” she said. “We know that the administration is for us, and so we bring ideas to them. They are happy to do whatever the students envision.”
The Campus Ministry team is able to support the students because of the openness of the administration, Swiergosz said.
“Our administration is open to our ideas; they are encouraging us to go forward in this to embrace our Catholic identity and make it a focus,” she said.
Conliffe noted, “There is a need for youth engagement in our church.” She hopes the offerings help students realize “that Christ loves them and has a place for them in today’s church.”
That’s why the school’s ministry has extended beyond its four walls to include students from other high schools in the worship nights, Conliffe said.
“Our rival schools and the boys’ schools — we can all rely on each other in growing in our faith, she said.
Conliffe said she expects student participation in Campus Ministry to grow in the coming years.
“I hope that this program will flourish and new students will come up and take these reins and run with them,” she said.
